Friday, February 09, 2007

When you live in the heart of a city as noisy as Madrid can be, it doesn’t seem possible to associate living in Spain with silence. That could be changing though, a court in Tenerife yesterday ordered the suspension of any street festivities after 10:00 at night that exceed 55 decibels until the judge delivers a definitive verdict on Monday. Even that might not seem too exceptional were it not for the fact that the festivities in question are those associated with Carnival, and Tenerife has one of the biggest Carnival celebrations in Spain. There are some events that take place during the day, but the real action probably isn’t even getting started by 10:00 at night. It seems hard to imagine that the case, presented by some local residents who will now probably have to into hiding, has any chance of succeeding but we live in strange times. Even in Germany you’re allowed, or expected, to make noise at Carnival time. You can tell other people about this story, but please try to do it quietly.